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Sssoooww, time flies they say!! No, I did not die since that last post for those wondering. Basically I got caught up in everyday life the last few months and my photography got banned to the second (or third) plan because of that. I didn’t even finish the photography-course I was attending (the one about portraiture I mentioned in this post). Although I really enjoyed the actual saturday morning classes I found myself having a difficult time in investing time and energy in the additional assignments. They just weren’t very high on my priority list and eventually I threw in the towel. It wasn’t an easy decision but I must admit it felt somewhat liberating in the end. Now I can shoot because I want to instead of shooting because I have to. Although I didn’t finish the course, I did attend most of the classes and learned a lot. The opportunity to work and experiment with all the fancy studio-equipment was an absolute blast.

Today I wanted to share two portraits of Eric, one of my fellow students. In one of the classes we had to exercise in balancing flash exposure with the existing ambient light. For the first shot above we found a spot inside the KISP-building where I could use a giant window as a backdrop. Outside that window was an industrial kind of landscape bathing in gorgeous morning light. By under-exposing the background and lighting Eric (studio-strobe + softbox) separatly we ended up with this.

For this next shot we faced the cold (it was freezing) and headed outside. It was a rather sunny morning so we had to move into the shade to avoid the harsh shadows that the sun would have given us. We used the sunny field behind Eric as a backdrop (again somewhat under-exposed) and mimicked sunlight falling on him using a speedlight with shoot-through umbrella for softer light-quality. This way we could keep the contrast under control, but still achieve very natural looking light.

That’s it for today’s comeback-post!! I hope you have enjoyed it and hopefully I will be able to post on a more regular base again, so stay tuned and see you all later.